Is using a recruiter right for you?

Originally published April 19, 2013 at 10:53 am
Updated December 18, 2015 at 1:30 pm

Bridget Hughes, a senior marketing analyst at Microsoft in Bellevue, has also contracted with Starbucks in Seattle. Not all recruiters are created equal, Hughes says. (Michelle Archer / The Seattle Times Jobs)

How do you know if a recruiter is good? Ask people you trust for recommendations, and pay attention to whether the recruiter listens to you to understand what you are (and aren’t) looking for.

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By Kristin Kalning

Special to The Seattle Times Jobs

When Andrew Edmond left his job last summer, he didn’t immediately look for another one. But when he was ready to get back out there, he went straight to his network of recruiters.

“Everyone I’d put on hold for the past five months, I wrote back to,” he says. “I worked with four recruiters, and one of them happened to have the one special opportunity that I loved and chose.” His job search took just nine days.

Edmond is a highly skilled software engineer, but you don’t need a resume like his to use a recruiter in your job search.

Dozens of third-party recruiting companies in the Seattle area match candidates to companies in fields ranging from accounting to technology.

Recruiter FAQs

What does a recruiter do? Whether in-house or external, a recruiter figures out what a hiring manager needs, scopes out the talent and makes the connection.

Who can use one? Most fields have specialty recruiting agencies, but not all fields are growing at the same pace. If you’re a software engineer, you’ll be in demand. But “if you’re a mid-level manager or an English teacher, that’s going to be harder,” says Joelson.

Contingent or retained? Most third-party recruiting firms are contingent, which means their payout is contingent upon them placing a candidate. Even if they do a lot of work, they don’t get paid if their candidate isn’t hired.

Retained recruiters receive a retainer from a company. Clients pay retainers for higher-echelon searches, such as a CEO or a CFO, explains Courtney O’Brien-McFarland, president of the <a href="http://www.shrm-seattle.com/">Seattle chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management</a>.

“Those searches can take from six months to a year,” she says. “You need to keep the lights on.” Clients usually pay the agency one-third of the retainer up front, another third midway through as a good-faith gesture, and the rest when the candidate has been hired.

“Good recruiters will add value to someone in their search by helping them navigate the hiring process, by introducing them to good opportunities that may or may not be advertised [and by] helping to negotiate a compensation package,” says Matt Joelson, managing partner of Seattle-based recruiting firm West500 Partners.

In-demand fields
While the national jobless rate is lagging at around 8 percent, the picture is brighter in King and Snohomish counties. That’s great news for our local economy, but it can make things tough for smaller, lesser-known companies to recruit top talent, particularly in high-tech and health care.

That’s where third-party recruiters come in. Companies work with agencies to help fill open positions. If recruiters find the right person for the job, they earn a tidy sum: usually 20 to 30 percent of the position’s annual salary, paid by the client (the hiring company). Job seekers don’t shell out a dime — and they get to take advantage of all the benefits of using a recruiter.

And those benefits can be considerable. Not only can recruiters whisk you past the queue of unread resumes, they can also give you the scoop on a company’s culture, and even the hiring manager’s personality.
“It totally takes the jitters out when you have the inside track of knowing the landscape,” says Chris Moody, a consultant who got his current position at Slalom Consulting through a recruiter.

Finding a good fit
But not all recruiters are created equal, says Bridget Hughes, a senior marketing analyst working as a contractor at Microsoft. While some are seasoned pros with deep connections, others are clearly more interested in jamming candidates into jobs.

“There’s nothing more painful than getting 15 minutes into a phone interview or 30 minutes into an in-person interview and find that this isn’t going to go anywhere,” she says. “It does feel like the solid grasp of what the team and company need from a future employee is tenuous, at best, with external recruiters.”

Building, not burning, bridges
Outside recruiters are only as good as their network, so it behooves them to be ethical and transparent.

“We’re hired by our clients to help find the right talent, but if there’s a role fit or a culture fit that’s not there, we have to be honest about it,” says Joelson. “Any recruiter who cares about [his or her] clients and reputation will try to make the best match possible, especially in such a tight-knit community like Seattle.”

Checking credentials
How do you know if a recruiter is good? Ask people you trust for recommendations, advises Joelson. Also, pay attention to whether the recruiter listens to you, and understands what you are (and aren’t) looking for.

Be sure to ask about the recruiter’s experience, says Moody.

“If somebody’s green, they may not be able to advocate for you and present you to the client,” he says. “And they may not have the connections — or the work.”